<html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> This is just to encourage those of you who have a taste for this sort of thing to go to our fine home page and click the slowly developing xTransit links. No kidding. It’s the next big thing in sustainable transport in cities. (And should have been a long time ago if we were not so very locked into our old ways of looking at and dong things.)   What is xTransit?   The job of this page – which is placed here merely to get the discussions and serious work going and with no pretensions of being in any way definitive – is to rough out the main antecedents and eventual raw materials and components of a well working xTransit system. It is being posted at this point as part of the process of starting to define and development useful materials and perspectives on this important and as yet hugely underexploited mobility asset.   If you want to see an example of the sort of thing that we are targeting to provide under this heading, our World Carshare project at http://worldcarshare.com is the best example that we can cite today.   Please give us your comments and suggestions, both as to points of details and more broadly.   What xTransit  is not: ·         ‘Normal cars’ ·         Motorized two/three wheelers ·         Scheduled, fixed route transit service ·         Cycles ·         Walking, running, etc.   Antecedents/ways of getting around:   In any old order and just to get us going.  What the following have in common is that they all are, or could be, candidates for, group ride services, more or less well articulated, more or less well supported by SOA technology.  For now we cluster these in groups of roughly like concepts and operations:   Taxis (even in the single client variant, as least as an antecedent) ·         Limousines ·         Group Taxis ·         Line Taxis ·         Maxicabs ·         Shared Taxis (also called, among many others: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matatu" title=Matatu>Matatu</a>, Gush Texi, Dolums, Collectivo, Jeepney, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_light_bus" title="Public light bus">Public light bus</a>, etc.) ·         Shirut, Publicos, Molue, Bemo, Tro-tro, Poda-poda, Danfo . . . and more   Ride-sharing ·         Lift-sharing (in UK also called carsharing. Watch out!) ·         Carpools ·         Vanpools ·         Buspools ·         Ride-matching ·         Hitchhiking   Shuttle buses ·         Feeder services ·         Jitneys   Demand Responsive transport ·         DRT ·         Dial a Ride ·         Dial a Bus ·         Taxi-Bus (Also Buxi, Busphone, Telebus, etc.)   Special Mobility Services ·         Paratransit ·         E&H group transit ·         Färdtjänst   Goods/freight delivery ·         Small package and message delivery ·         Grouped gods delivery/Clustering <h3 style='margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:72.0pt;margin-bottom: .0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt'>·         Freight Village </h3> ·         Teleshopping   The other half of the xTransit equation\the logistics link: ·         IT/ICT ·         Central dispatching services ·         Internet/website information ·         Internet/website reservation/ordering ·         GPS ·         Mobile phones ·         Mobility centers   Some of the key issue areas that need attention: ·         Financing: Who pays what ·         Role of fairbox ·         HOV priority ·         Barriers and regulations (incl. local ordinances) ·         Labor union (resistance) ·         Trade resistance (mainly from taxi operators) ·         Insurance, Liability ·         Safety ·         Privacy       </div> </body> </html>